2024

Writing from a motel in Atkins VA after hiking 25 miles and taking a shower.   I slept like a rock last night. I feel asleep at 9:30 and didn’t move until my alarm went off at 6:30. I haven’t slept that well on trail ever.  We packed up and were hiking by 8. With 25 miles into town, we were hoping to make it in time for dinner. We were also hoping we would be able to find restaurants and a shuttle given the holiday.  Most of the morning involved hiking through meadows at lower elevations. Eventually we climbed up a ridge where we had some cool views of the valleys below.  For the final 6 miles of the day we descended down into Atkins. The hike down had some cool sections through grassy thickets that were almost like tunnels.  We pushed quickly through the last few miles to make it into town by 5:30PM. Unfortunately the very highly recommended Mexican restaurant in Atkins was closed for Easter. We ordered pizza and burgers for takeout and had an incredibly nice s...

Writing from my tent while finally resting after hiking over 27 miles. Well the campsite last night was full of rude people. There was a group that showed up after dark and spent 3-4 hours shining their headlamps around, breaking sticks to make a fire, talking loudly, and playing music. This was all while there were about 10 other people who were all quietly sleeping in their tents before the buffoons showed up.  I slept probably 5-6 hours last night. Not ideal but not terrible all things considered. I woke up just at the end of a beautiful sunrise. We began the morning by climbing Mount Rogers and crossing the 500 mile mark.  From Rogers we hiked the peaks and ridges of the Grayson Highlands for most of the rest of the day. We had great weather, excellent views, and saw some ponies. We also passed through a short cave called the Fatman Squeeze.  After exiting the Grayson Highlands, most of the rest of the day was hiking at lower elevation without much to look at. Ou...

Writing from my tent at the base of the Grayson Highlands.   I slept like a baby in a real bed last night. Pretty much once my head hit the pillow at 10:30PM I was asleep. We woke up and cooked bacon, eggs, and English muffins for breakfast. We ran a couple errands in town before climbing out of Damascus and into the mountains of Virginia. We started hiking around 9:45 and most of the was at lower elevation on pretty easy terrain. The trail took a turn uphill and we began ascending White Top Mountain. The ascent took most of the rest of the day. The trail doesn’t go to the summit of White Top but it goes through a meadow near the top at around 5,000 feet elevation. The views were spectacular. After the summit of White Top we hiked downhill for around 3 miles and made it to our camp at the base of Mount Rogers, the tallest mountain in Virginia.  Tomorrow we will wake up and ascend Rogers, which is the start of the Grayson Highlands. The ascent shouldn’t be too difficult and we ...

I slept incredibly well last night. Once I tried falling asleep at 10PM I was out and stayed asleep until 6:30AM when my alarm went off. I guess hiking over 26 miles really tired me out. We all started moving around 7 and were hiking by 8:15. After filling up water and actually getting on trail the clock read 8:30. Getting to town motivated us to move quickly. We hiked most of the morning over a very simple ridge. With only 15 miles to town we pushed pretty hard. We hiked to by 1:00, essentially having covered 15.5 miles in 4.5 hours. On the way into town we crossed out of Tennessee and into Virginia! Once in Damascus we passed a couple iconic landmarks including the arch. After the arch we checked into our room and I took my first shower in 8 days. It’s funny how great the simple things are when you go without them for a week. We are staying in the exact same room where Tyler and I stayed 4 years ago. After checking into the room we went to the diner in town and I ate a double bacon c...

Writing from my tent at 9PM after hiking further in one day than I ever have before.   We woke up at 7 and were hiking by 8:15. Camping near a lake caused a lot of condensation so my tent got pretty wet even if the rain stopped around 9:30 last night. I slept quite well and was definitely tired after the 25.5 miles yesterday.  We began the morning by hiking around Watauga Lake and over the Wilbur Dam. Looking back now it’s crazy to think how far we’ve come since the morning.  After crossing the dam and ascending a couple moderately steep sections of trail we stopped for lunch at a shelter. The next 15 miles of the day were all a ridge walk, overlooking the valleys and Watauga lake.  As the day progressed, the ridge carried us to a much wider part of the valley, where the mountains felt further away. Eventually we reached an iconic set of pastures with a very distinctive barn.  The last few miles of the day were back to a wooded ridge walk. We made it to camp aro...